After the Deadline Live for WP.com
Last week you guys published 1.4 million new blog posts, but you only ran the spell checker about 204 thousand times. Ahem. The two possible explanations for this are that we’re all perfect writers or that we just forget to run the spell checker. I’m in the latter camp.
I don’t blame you — spell checkers are usually pretty lame. They are bad with most proper nouns and usually my problem isn’t spelling (which my browser catches), but grammar and style.
It’s amazing to me how hard it is to edit one’s own writing. I can read something I’ve written ten times, even speak it out loud, and miss obvious errors and mistakes that an editor (often Jane) spots on their first pass. And what if Jane isn’t around?
Now there’s a solution for everybody. It’s already live on your blog, and it’s from a company called After the Deadline. Here’s a video to introduce you to it:
doneWhen I first tried After the Deadline I was blown away; it was so much better than other checkers I’d used, and it was by one guy building this thing that solves a problem other folks have teams of PhDs trying to solve. I reached out to Raphael (the one guy) to see how we could get this technology in front of WordPress users and ended up doing a deal for Automattic to buy his entire company.
The other cool thing about this new technology is that it’s getting better every day — Raphael is constantly adding new rules and heuristics, and the technology is learning from millions of blog posts on WP.com to make the contextual parts of the checker smarter and smarter.
At its core WordPress has always been about writing — that’s why we put so much effort into things like the visual editor, revisions, and auto-save, so you never lose your work. Now you have another arrow in your quiver to help you present the best possible face to your readers and the world.
As the video above shows, you can enable and customize the way After the Deadline analyzes your posts by adjusting the new Proofreading settings in your profile, and then use the new feature by clicking on the icon in the Visual Editor toolbar that has ABC and a green checkmark on it. After the Deadline will analyze your post as you write it and highlight potential errors with an underline (red for spelling, green for grammar, blue for style), similar to grammar and spell checkers in word processing software. Clicking on a highlighted word or phrase will reveal the suggested correction, tell you why it’s suspected to be an error, and allow you to accept or ignore it.
You can read more about the story behind Automattic acquiring After the Deadline on the official AtD blog.
This feature is English-only for now (give us a little time) and available for WordPress.org as a plugin.
Email Newsletter
September 8th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Will this be included in future WordPress releases? Like perhaps a 2.8.5?
September 9th, 2009 at 12:34 am
You can get it today as a plugin.
September 8th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
Exhibit #1: “Last week you guys published 1.4 million new blog posts, but you only ran the spell checker about 204 thousand times. Ahem. ”
Exhibit #2: “(…) the technology is learning from millions of blog posts on WP.com to make the contextual parts of the checker smarter and smarter”.
So, if no one focuses on fixing one’s mistake, and AtD learns from non-checked posts, wouldn’t that make it dumber and dumber?
Sorry, I just had to point at this funny tidbit:)
Excellent find, Matt, and I look forward to seeing this implemented in other languages! Great great move, really!
September 8th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
I give you a little time, but then I’ll need it for German language or let’s say the Austrian way using it
September 8th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Yes! This is a big improvement over the old spell-checking system. What a pleasent surprise as I was finishing my latest post. This will make my blogging a heck of a lot easier. Good job WordPress.
September 8th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Good Addition.
I wonder why its called “After the Deadline”. Does it imply there’s still time to make that cricual change before the deadline? But in that case wouldn’t it be called “Before the Deadline”?
I’m confused
September 10th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
The name is a play on the After Deadline blog maintained by an editor at the New York Times. http://topics.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/after-deadline/ The purpose of the blog is to examine writing issues and mistakes they caught after the deadline. I thought the name was pretty fitting. Other candidates included prEDITOR or Ninja Edit.
September 8th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
And what about Russian language?
September 9th, 2009 at 12:34 am
Someday!
September 8th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
I never used spell checker as something automattically checked my words as I typed them, what is it?
Anyway, GREAT new littel thingy to play with Matt, thanks!
x
September 9th, 2009 at 12:35 am
Firefox does it for me.
September 8th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
“A unique way of spelling a specific word.” Hilarious.
Funny thing: I accidentally stumbled upon these options a few minutes ago. The strange thing is, I haven’t been to that page on my profile for almost a year. What are the odds?
September 8th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
Sweet! I’ll be an author of untold heights. Thanks!
September 8th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
FF spell checker – the WP s/c is a bit more “choppy” and on bad connections has led to loss of data, (ie tries to save the draft but bad connection corrupts (in lack of a better term) it).
September 8th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Hmmm – thanks for the tip!
September 8th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Great feature!
Nice improvement to WP users!.; )
PS.: The link to video in post is missing… ; ) – “Here’s a video to introduce you to it:”
Greetings from Brazil
September 8th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
Awesome. Works great.
September 8th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
it’s good to know that wordpress team really works hard. thanks!
September 8th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Sweet! Thanks for constantly improving this site. I’m a relatively new user, yet I’ve seen some fabulous changes in just a few short months. Color me impressed.
September 8th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
I think this sounds and looks fantastic, I can hardly wait to use it.
September 8th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
It sounds good! I must say, I usually cut ‘n’ paste my articles from Word into my blog and webpages and just use the spellchecker there first. Maybe this will save me time and Qi.
Thanks, WP!
September 8th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
Fascinating. The example picked up two of my big pedantic issues. I absolutely HATE the use of UTILIZE instead of USE. But most people think it’s SO much better to use a multi-syllable word! the other one is SOMEONE THAT. Now, downunder we were taught that you always use WHO after people but THAT (or WHICH) after things. However, I believe that in the USA, THAT after people is perfectly ok. It grates on my delicate ears but I have checked USA grammar books and I believe it is OK. Or, did I read incorrect USA grammar books? Whatever, I will use this product in future.
September 8th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
¡Genial! Otra forma de corregir las faltas cómodamente, me gusta.
September 8th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
AWESOME!!
(How long has it been since I used that emote?)
I’m good at spelling and grammar, but every so often, I misspell words and make mistakes in grammar in my blog posts. The spell checker didn’t help much, but this new one will be terrific! All we need now is a spell checker for comments!
What will you guys think of next? Will WordPress give us the power to fly?
September 8th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
Congratulations both Automattic and After the Deadline!
September 9th, 2009 at 12:29 am
wowie wow wow wow. Absolutely amazing!
September 9th, 2009 at 12:33 am
I don’t need spell checkers, and people shouldn’t.
September 9th, 2009 at 12:50 am
Extremely interesting! I bet 9 out of 10 companies do not think on this aspect [just as only 204 people or instances of spell checking obtain in 1.4 million new blog posts]!
I am not surprised the comments here are rather long. I am as much excited because I love the English language!
And you bought the company itself!!! Birds of same feather always flock together!
I saw a WP video for the first time, great quality and AtD has lot of features! Artificial intelligence, ahem!
I read their FAQ: The name ‘After the Deadline’ is inspired by the NY Times After Deadline blog!! Interesting!
I am addicted to ‘Windows Live Writer’ and will either submit drafts from it to the editor to use this service or simply or will check it at ‘polish my writing’!
Thanks.
September 9th, 2009 at 1:00 am
When you say ‘English’, do you mean American English?
September 10th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
After the Deadline supports both British English and American English.
September 9th, 2009 at 1:08 am
I’ve been using Firefox’s spell checker (partly because formatting is easier in Firefox than IE), but it has nothing for grammar. This is a welcome feature.
September 9th, 2009 at 1:26 am
“You can get it today as a plugin.”
Matt, thanks, I read that part
I am wondering if this functionality will be part of future WordPress releases, so I don’t have to download and install the plugin in all of my WP installations.
September 9th, 2009 at 1:30 am
Glad to hear it!
September 9th, 2009 at 2:25 am
Well, maybe if the existing spellchecker wasn’t so broken, more people would have used it… Between all the false positives and the tendency for it to randomly eat spaces in front of flagged words (often cvreating more errors than it fixes) I found it easier to just cut and paste into Word.
September 9th, 2009 at 2:28 am
“Over-used cliches” is redundant.
September 9th, 2009 at 2:41 am
A very useful and customizable feature – thanks
September 9th, 2009 at 3:11 am
Since I’m not seeing the “z” corrected in utilise, I’m assuming it is USA spelling? Didn’t see the option for no weird American spelling in the video.
September 9th, 2009 at 3:20 am
NICE!!! I can’t wait to turn my college students on to this when they start their blogs in a week or two!! Thanks–from me and them! (Now, will this be something we’ll ever be able to use with comments?? That’s where I need it!)
September 9th, 2009 at 3:38 am
this is very useful, indeed. thanks heaps, WP! <3
but i guess it will take ages till we can have this feature in Vietnamese. :'(
September 9th, 2009 at 3:38 am
im not sure about this one.. yeah im all up for easy work. but i like the mistakes.
September 9th, 2009 at 4:49 am
awesome feature. i love it.
September 9th, 2009 at 5:09 am
I don’t like using mechanical editors too but this one works like human!
BEST I’ve ever used- and just a newbie ‘AfterTheDeadline’ on WP at that.
Just between us (isn’t it unethical to use this as my personal spell-check outside WP?)
September 9th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Hah not at all. I take the *greatest* joy in knowing something I made helps you in some way. Best of luck and enjoy After the Deadline. — Raphael (AtD developer)
September 9th, 2009 at 7:06 am
Wow, that’s a pretty short list of possibilities that you have there. … As for me, I run the spell checker I have in Firefox before I post my blog via ScribeFire. … And there are a lot more third party posting options than ScribeFire.
… Would that account for a couple hundred thousand postings without spellcheck?
September 9th, 2009 at 8:57 am
Good to hear this available as Plug in.. Just a question Matt? Is it possible to integrate “After the deadline” with Comments box by default?
Save Ecosystem.
October 1st, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Not at the moment, but thanks for the suggestion!
September 9th, 2009 at 10:00 am
That’s great work but don’t you think it will ask for additional bandwidth and load time ?
October 1st, 2009 at 1:38 pm
You’ll still be blogging strong with After the Deadline
September 9th, 2009 at 10:40 am
I would use it but it only seems to know English, at least I couldn’t find any setting to switch it to another language.
September 9th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Great tool. I’ve just gone back in to check a post I had already published and found a couple of errors that I have now corrected. Cool. Thank you. Much appreciated.
September 9th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Very good, I am waiting for german grammar and style !
Is it possible, too ?
September 10th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
We’ll be working on other languages down the line.
September 9th, 2009 at 11:45 am
Wow! New stuff coming out all the time. A good tool to have.
September 9th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Great feature. Maybe it can even help you to stop using derogatory and prejudicial slang like “lame” in your own WordPress posts.
September 9th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
This sounds really great. Wait, is that proper grammar? This will come in real handy for me because I really do stink at grammar. Great job WordPress!!
September 9th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
This is awesome. So is WP, for finding and sharing it!
September 9th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Useful for me, as English user as second language.
September 9th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
I never thought spell checking could be so easy. I always looked at it as a chore, but now I’m actually looking forward to it. Thanks WordPress!
September 9th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
This is really cool. This will definitely help with my constant “its” and “it’s” problem.
September 9th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
THIS IS AN AWESOME SITE. THANK YOU FOR THE FREE BLOG ACCOUNT AND A GREAT SPELL CHECK PROGRAM.
September 9th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
“… or that we just forget to run the spell checker.”
Now that you’ve got this new and improved checker, why not turn it on by default?
If a blog owner finds it annoying, they can press the button to turn it off. It would be good if WordPress could then remember their decision for their next session.
Also, would be very good to see this applied to comment writing – comments are generally written more quickly and with less review than blog posts, it seem to me that they would benefit even more from AtD. Improving the written standard of comments would increase the amount of people adopting the habit of reading comments, increasing the average time spent on each WordPress.com post.
September 9th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
I never even bothered to spell check… I wonder if I will? “_
September 10th, 2009 at 2:54 am
This is a great new feature! I love it! I for one, know that I don’t take a ton of time to check my spelling and grammar.
September 10th, 2009 at 3:21 am
This is a great feature thank you adding this helpful feature. Another great reason why WordPress Rocks.
September 10th, 2009 at 11:26 am
Yeah, but this would fully mess with the way i, like, express myself, dude. I’ve worked long and hard to develop my personal voice, and i don’t want no ROBOT turning my edgy, out-there posts into soulless automata that sound like a bunch of freakin’ job applications…
September 10th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
The style checker options are from the Plain English http://www.plainlanguage.gov/ I understand that style checking isn’t useful to everyone (although it helps me a lot!) so these options are disabled by default. AtD only checks grammar, spelling, and misused words until you turn the other stuff on. We’re not out to stop you from expressing yourself–at all. Also if you find it keeps flagging stuff that is part of how you express yourself, we made it easy to select “Ignore Always” and you’ll never see that error again. So I like to think you get the best of both worlds.
September 10th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
No it won’t fully mess with the way you, like, express yourself… It’s toggle-able ; ]
September 10th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
This tool is not only useful in bloging but also helps people to know where they are going wrong in spelling as well as grammar (It doesn’t seem all issues are added). Thanks a lot. By the way how to use the plug-in in word editor? Sorry, asking questions is prohibited here but answer has already been given here which forced me to raise this follow-up question.
October 1st, 2009 at 1:33 pm
I’m sorry, but plugins are not a feature of WordPress.com. That’s a feature of self-hosted blogs, available through WordPress.org.
September 10th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
I do spell check but in word before I paste my post. But this will be an additional help. Thanks
September 10th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
For now, all ihave to say is that i am very glad for joining this site
September 10th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
I write in two languages on my blog. It would be nice if it was possible to switch between the grammar, depending on the language I use.
Also there are browsers which include dictionarys (but no grammar checks), so there was no need for me to press the spelling button.
September 10th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
So it doesn’t suggest that you write “204 thousand times” as “204,000″?
September 11th, 2009 at 1:37 am
Thanks so much!! Grammar is an incredibly important aspect of writing, and I need all the help I can get! Thanks! Another perk from Word Press!!
September 11th, 2009 at 2:55 am
Oh, thanks. Real live human editors and proofreaders don’t get no respect anymore.
EDITORS OF THE WORLD, UNTIE!
September 12th, 2009 at 9:25 am
Hehe…
I see AtD as a safety net meant to help catch some things. A computer will never replace a human editor but I want to have a computer assist with what it’s good at. It also helps for a good first pass over the information. I can’t see my own mistakes (repeated words and some homophone mistakes) when writing. AtD makes a sincere effort to help with these.
September 11th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
AtD is great for that last-minute proofreading. Thanks to Raphael and WP for adding this really neat plugin!
September 11th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Of course, many of us compose offline in Word (or another word processor) and run our spellchecks there – and then paste the final product into WordPress.
– hippieprof
September 12th, 2009 at 1:16 am
Now you don’t have to.
You can do it right on WordPress.com.
September 11th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Hope it’s available for WP.com soon too!
September 12th, 2009 at 1:15 am
It is!
September 11th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Thanks so much for working diligently to give us the top of the line blogging tools and experiences!
Many blessings to you!
September 11th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
I write my posts in a word processor first (NOT ‘Word’, as I’m English and therefore allergic to anything Bill Gates tells me my language should be) and speall check it, if necessary, within that. Thanks anyway.
September 11th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Pretty cool! Love it! =) Thanks!